VARIOUS ARTISTS
Tribute to the Travelin’ Lady
Rosalie Sorrels
I was honored to enjoy a
long friendship with the late and great folksinger and songwriter Rosalie Sorrels (1933-2017). I was
still in high school, circa 1970, when I first encountered her at the Back
Door, a Montreal coffeehouse that existed from 1969 to 1971. It was during that
Back Door gig that Rosalie wrote “Travelin’ Lady,” her signature song.
By 1972, as a college
student in Montreal, I began producing folk concerts in Montreal and my first
concert with Rosalie was a double bill with Utah Phillips in 1973. There would be many more concerts with
Rosalie in Montreal, and in the late-‘70s and early-‘80s, when I ran a small
booking agency for a select roster of folk music artists, Rosalie was one of my
clients.
As I noted in an essay in June when she passed away, “Rosalie
taught me much about the endurance of the human spirit and that adversities and
personal tragedies can be the basis for cathartic art. And she taught me how to
recognize greatness in songs.”
And, as Eliza
Gilkyson writes in the notes to her track on Tribute to the Travelin’ Lady Rosalie Sorrels, “Any folksinger of
my generation must claim Rosalie Sorrels as a foundational influence.”
Tribute to the
Travelin’ Lady Rosalie Sorrels is a 4-CD set encompassing 44 songs by almost as many artists. About
half the songs are performed by artists I know – including several old friends –
and about half are by artists from Rosalie’s home state of Idaho who fell under her
spell. At least two years in the making, most of the songs were written by
Rosalie. A few others were songs from her vast repertoire, two were written in
tribute to her, and a couple are original songs by the late Guy Clark and the late Jimmy LaFave that I can easily imagine
hearing Rosalie do.
The album begins with Tom Russell’s “Pork Roast and Poetry,” an original by Tom in which
he describes an evening spent visiting with Rosalie at the cabin her father
built in Idaho at Grimes Creek. Having spent more than a few evenings in
decades long past visiting with Rosalie and sampling her cooking, I can attest
to the absolute authenticity of the song.
There are so many great performances on these
four CDs that I can barely begin calling attention to all of them. But some of
the songs that touched me deepest include Robin and Linda
Williams’ rendition of “Borderline Heart,” the title track of one of my
favorites of Rosalie’s albums; Eliza Gilkyson’s interpretation of “Travelin’
Lady,” Rosalie signature song written the same week I first met her and the
title track from two great albums; Terry
Garthwaite’s version of “Apple of My Eye,” a poignant song written for Rosalie’s
daughter Shelley (and hearing Terry sing it brought back fond memories of the
concert I produced with Rosalie, Terry and Bobbie
Louise Hawkins); Laurie Lewis’
version of “Last Go Round”; Peter Rowan’s
version of “Go With Me,” a lovely song from If
I Could Be the Rain, the first LP of Rosalie’s I ever heard in the late-‘60s;
Barbara Higbie’s interpretation of “Hitchhiker
in the Rain,” Rosalie’s heartbreaking remembrance of her late son David; John Gorka’s take on “Song for My
Birthday,” a song about Rosalie independent spirit; and Jane Voss and Hoyle Osborne’s performance of “Delia Rose,” a song
written for a young child.
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| Rosalie Sorrels & Mike Regenstreif (1993) |
And that’s just the tip of the proverbial
iceberg. There are so many more great songs and wonderful performances – including
some which take the songs in different directions from Rosalie’s original
versions.
Kudos are particularly due to Idaho singer Rocci Johnson for spearheading this
wonderful project (and for her rocking version of “Occasional Man”).
And the four CDs and booklet come in a
beautifully designed boxed set inspired by Rosalie’s legendary scrapbook, and filled
with photos from it.
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--Mike Regenstreif
